The End of the Beginning
by antra
Summary: Book 7, an alternate version of the finale battle.


_Harry Potter belongs to Rowling. I'm just playing with her toys_

* * *

Severus Snape groaned softly and stood up. There was blood everywhere, soaking his clothes.

He conjured a mirror, inspecting Naginis wound. While he could still see how big the holes had been they were already closing, leaving fresh scar tissue.

He had planned for this. Nagini was one of the common ways the Dark Lord liked to kill and as the Potions Masters knew his former masters volatile temper he planned and prepared surviving the bite of the giant snake.

Had nobody explained to the Dark Lord that nobody poisoned a Potion Master?

Snape knew he wouldn't have anybody to help him so just taking a bezoar and a few other potions with him and risking not being able to take them was right out.

No, he decided on a different approach. He changed his own blood and body chemistry. The poison was now nothing more than nourishment and replaced his lost blood. With biting him Nagini had managed to poison herself, ironic as it was. Even if she hadn't bit him but eaten him instead his poisonous blood would kill her shortly.

He could still hear the fighting and staggered out of the Shrieking Shack. Every passing second gave him more power as his body adapted to his new blood composition.

Hexing Death Eaters on the way to the main event people stared when they saw him, surprised with whom he was targeting and with his appearance, completely drenched in blood, paler than normal but still standing. The thicker the fighting got the more Death Eaters fell to his wand.

He saw the figure of Bellatrix Lestrange ready to attack Nymphadora Tonks and felled her with a soundless Sectumsempra.

A few short moments later he saw him, the Dark Lord himself. Nagini was already swaying in death throes, distracting her master. He couldn't see Potter and his cohorts anywhere, so at least something had gone right. Everything he had done had been to protect the children, not only Lilys but all the ones that needed protection, something his own generation didn't get. It was one of his main problems with Dumbledore, the old mans willingness to let the children do the fighting.

Snape summoned the raw magical power that belonged to Hogwarts and the castle answered the call of its Headmaster. Time to end this here and now, before another generation was broken and destroyed. The high inhuman shriek as Voldemort fell was the beginning of the end.

* * *

Snape glowered down his long nose to the small pudgy ministry idiot. The man tried to suppress the desire to stand farther away from the dark man. First, he was Snape, second, he was still covered in his own blood – He had more important things to do and it certainly brought others to do his bidding faster and without a lot of talking – and third he was the guy that vaporized Voldemort to Kingdom come.

A bit of healthy respect could only help.

"Mr Deavengloss, what does the ministry deem as important enough to disrupt the search for the wounded and the repairing of Hogwarts?

Deavengloss paled when the man infront of him formulated it like that. "Of course there is nothing more important..."

Snape lifted an eyebrow and the little man hastily excused himself. He looked around.

The mediwizards and witches helped the most injured, sorted who could wait and who needed to be brought to St Mungos as fast as possible. The Aurors went after the last fleeing Death Eaters, guarded the ones that needed to go to St Mungos and the ones that could be brought directly to Azkaban. And the surviving teachers directed the house elves in rebuilding Hogwarts. He himself had decided on taking the grisly task of helping with the dead.

* * *

Snape sat before Kingsley. He never really thought he would survive the war but here he was, alive, pardoned for the death of Albus Dumbledore (the twinkling sweets junkie had documented his orders beforehand and his own disastrous health state) lauded as a hero for his dangerous work of spying and confirmed as Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Severus had asked Minerva if she wanted the job, the Head of Gryffindor would only have done it for the lack of other candidates. She enjoyed teaching and forming young minds and detested the politics in the background.

Flitwick never showed any interest in being Headmaster and Pomona Sprout had made clear she preferred pottering in her green houses.

"Severus, when you... vaporized You-know... Voldemort," began Kingsley.

A lifted eyebrow and Kingsley sighed. Snape had made clear that he had just channeled the raw energy of Hogwarts. Kingsley didn't know if it really happened that way and wanted to know. "What spell did you use?" Kingsley had never seen anything like that. As if the spell ate its target.

Snape was silent for a long moment. "Kingsley, what will make the population sleep better. The knowledge of the raw powerof their old school being so great it wiped the Dark Lord out of existence or knowing the very shady Headmaster of Hogwarts knows spells and curses that eradicate everything in its wake."

Kingsley didn't say anything for a moment as well. He knew what they would tell the population. The Auror part of his being still wanted to know, but he didn't ask, hoping to never see the spell and the result of it again.

"Thank you, Headmaster Snape. I trust that you don't need an Auror escort to Hogwarts for your safety?"

The smile was so small Kingsley only saw it because he had known Severus for so long. "Of course."


End file.
